Improved bottle-stopper



' UNITED STATES TENT OFFICE..

J. B." WILLIAMS, or NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVED BOTTLE-STOPPER.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 19,323, dated February 9, 1858.

vthe article in question; and Fig. 2 represents a central Vertical section through the same.

Similar letters of reference where they occur in the separate figures denote like parts of the stoppers in both of them.

I am aware that several kinds of valves have been used in bottle-Stoppers which open when the bottle is tipped up. It is unnecessary to allude to those that are hinged, as they are materially different from mine. That which most resembles my article is where a ball is fastened to a rod and the rod passing through guides in the interior of the orice.

Such an arrangement not only checks the low of liquid through the stopper, but it is more expensive to manufacture, diflicult to repair, and when clogged, which will happen, as the interior cannot be readily got at for cleansing, the valve opens suddenly by the weight of the liquid and allows it to gush out. My invention consists in making a new article of manufacture for a bottle-stopper, in which the oriiice or tube is entirely open and free from any impediment to the -ilow ofthe liquid therefrom, the valve being a ball of marble, glass, or other vitrified material easily kept clean, and moving in a basket or wire-covered guide attached to the outside of the stopper, which makes a better and cheaper article, more easily cleansed and repaired, and altogether a more merchantable article than any other of which I have knowledge.

To enable others skilled in the art to make and use my invention, AI will proceed to describe the same with reference to the drawings.

a represents a tube of metal, either cast, struck up, or made in any of the usual wellknown ways, and furnished with the accus tomed flanges, I) b-one to rest on the top of the neck of the bottle and the other to form a lip over which the liquid flows. of the tube is incased by a conical cork cylinder or belt, c, which, when slipped on, is retained in its place by turning a ilange, d, against it on the lower end of the tube a. To the top flange b are fastened two or more wires, c, so as to form a guide or frame in which a loose ball, j', may freely roll when the bottle is canted, so as to leave a free passage through the tube a. When the bottle is righted up, the ballf runs back to its seat, being guided thereto by the wires. The ball f I prefer to make of glass, either plain or colored, as being more easily cleansed, and not liable to stain by contact with the liquids poured from the bottle. The article as a whole is cheaper, cleaner, and more easily repaired than any heretofore used, and it leaves the bore of the tube entirely free from any impediment to the steady. iiow of the liquid therefrom. Y

Having thus fully described the nature and object of my invention, I would state that I am aware a ball-valve isnot new, and I lay no claim to it in its general application; but

What I do claim as a new article of manufacture is- A bottle-stopper composed of a metal tube having proper iianges, one end of which is covered with cork, and its top furnished with a ball-valve which moves between guides attached to the tube or its flange, the whole being made as herein set forth.

J. B. VILLIAMS.

Vitnesses:

A. B. STOUGIITON, Trios. H. UPPERMAN.

.The lower end 

